Students who are working to save sea turtles need community support.The Honu Heroes are students from the Kihei Charter School, Middle School STEM Academy (Science, Technology, Engineering/Environment, Math). While being led by their teacher, Peg Temple, and others, to increase their research opportunities, they became engrossed with helping honu (green sea turtles). Their goal is to work together to help clean our environment and improve the health of the turtles.
“I fell in love with turtles at the Boston Aquarium,” said Temple. “When I moved to Maui, I swam with them and it became a heartfelt experience. I am now dedicated to helping them and I am so grateful and impressed by my students’ dedication and enthusiasm.”
Outdoor classroom work consists of cleaning beaches, rebuilding fishponds, cleaning and maintaining coral reefs, cleaning the wetlands to foster native plants and identifying invasive algae for the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Hawai‘i (UH). It was while performing these community services that the problem of the honu came to light.
When asked where their passion for saving honu came from, the students replied, “Back in December we saw a turtle named Pele die from fibropapilloma and we were all upset for a very long time. It was then that we decided to take action and try to help save the honu.”
Fibropapilloma is a disease that causes fibrous growths on the eyes, neck, flippers, and in the mouth of honu. Researchers believe it is a form of the herpes virus, which causes large white warts with a cauliflower texture to form on the skin of the turtle. It can also develop internally within the lungs, kidneys, liver or intestines, manifesting as large purple growths.
Fibropapilloma usually affects the juvenile turtles and was first found in Hawai‘i on O‘ahu in 1958. The main cause of fibropapilloma is thought to be pollution from chemicals and boat dumping. People usually toss trash and waste off boats. Even the plastic bags we carelessly let get into the ocean can cause a hungry turtle to mistake them for food and die from their error. Needless to say, heavily trafficked boat harbors are a haven for this disease.
The honu is protected as a threatened species under the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the Wildlife Laws of the State of Hawai‘i. While laws protecting the turtles initially caused a gradual increase in their population, this trend has stopped because of the disease.
But the Heroes’ plan of action is already working. These students are community partners with NOAA, UH, Pacific Whale Foundation, state Department of Land and Natural Resources, Maui Ocean Center and The Digital Bus. They have gone to county and Rotary meetings to introduce the urgency of the problem to our city leaders and to ask for their help in making the message public. They have an appointment with the Maui County Council and will also publish brochures they have made on the subject.
In order to help them achieve their goal of saving the honu, they will need maximum community support. They are also calling on their fellow students from other islands to get involved and be partners with them. If anyone is interested in helping, they will train you and get you started. They will also come on-site and show you how to begin your research.
The Heroes are getting their message out to hotels, airlines and malls. They intend to reach visitors to Hawai‘i by urging the airlines to develop and play an infomercial on the subject on in-bound flights to educate tourists about turtles and how they are being harmed. The Heroes have already been called by major resorts about sightings of diseased turtles on their beaches in Ka‘anapali.
The honu are very important to us. The first turtles are believed to have existed about 200 million years ago and have been part of our ecosystem all that time. They are aumakua, native to Hawai‘i and guides to the islands long ago. They are found in Hawaiian culture through petroglyphs and mythology. Moreover, just as the health of land animals tells us about the condition of the land environment, the health of the marine turtles of the world is an indicator of how our oceans are faring. Dying turtles are symptoms of sick oceans, and sick oceans will affect all of us.
A Honu Heroes Website is expected to be online sometime in July. For more information, to volunteer or to make a donation, contact Temple at (808) 344-5860.